The Flame & The Feast

There’s nothing like a damn good meal, is there? Food can be delicious, enchanting, seductive, comforting, enlivening, inspiring, tear-jerking, heart warming and above all satisfying. Food is the best example of necessity turned into pleasure. Good food should be savoured, glinted by the eye, rolled around the mouth, tasted for all its worth, leaving a sensation of repletion, completeness and glorious repast. Always give thanks for food.?

Some foods are best eaten cold. Crispy lettuce, succulent oysters, creamy ice cream, chilled dishes of any sort can be sumptuous in a light and frivolous way. Heavier meals generally need cooking, a skill I have observed in many parts of the world. The Chef in Tampa, Florida who could bring ice cream to a quite modest temperature at which it would never melt was an example of personal judgement over mechanical measure. I recall the Petaling Jaya duck burner who made a crispy duck so delicious that no automaton could match it.

Who could forget the Tehran Chef who made Wild Dog a dish to rival the finest Guinea Fowl; or the Savoy Grill Executive expert who could hang a Scottish grouse to perfection, tell it the address of the kitchen but never let it go there. Or the RMS Queen Mary’s Verandah Grill Chef who made the penultimate crossing of the Atlantic by the great liner a paradise of perfection. I could go on forever. So could you.

What is the secret of great cooking?

Knowing when to start, determining the pace, heat and length of the flame, judging the food and treating it kindly, sensitively, lovingly. Deciding the way it is presented - confident, enticing, bold and benign, ready to serve but never servant, enjoying the pleasure it brings to others and, by reflection, to itself. Food satisfies all and thus itself becomes satisfactory. What a glorious thing to be able to say of one of life’s staples.?

Have a food cuddle. It’s good for you.

We know of the terrible deprivations of those denied palatable food or food of any kind. At the bottom of this page you will see that we at TMI try to do a little something to help redress that. We also revel in the good food we are fortunate enough to eat and we think of it in another context. People are the dishes of life. Prepared by parents, teachers, all who come into contact with them. We don’t eat them - not even Mr Trump suggests that - but we do fashion them.? And they do contribute to our quality of life - not always good but learning and sensational.

Our food is precious, our fellow human beings even more so. To help prepare them for the next stage of life, whatever stage that is, makes the jobs of mentors and coaches work of fine judgement, handling as delicate as any chef, bold adventure. Sometimes to fashion a rooty dish, tasty and simple. At other times they will be working with a multi-course marvel of a banquet. Every person, as every dish, requires a sensitive, delicate but brave preparation.

Each person, like each meal is an opportunity for rejoicing - not in their conformity but in their variety. When all is said and done it is the unexpected that makes life worthwhile. And it is the unexpected in people that makes humanity a unique species, lovable, detestable, beautiful, grotesque, shocking and sharing. Enjoy and irritate your fellow humans just as you savour and spice the foods you eat.

Making a meal of life turns banal existence into a banquet.

Become the Chef to master that.

Good morning

John Bittleston

Each month Terrific Mentors International sends a modest sum to a charity helping to feed the hungry. It is always accompanied by our prayers that those who receive it may enjoy food again.

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